The Brew Cabin

Posted: **Wed Dec 14, 2011 5:47 pm**

Hi Fellas,

Around 8 months ago i installed a disabled access path at my local village hall, at the top end of path were it adjoins an existing path, on the corner so to speak there is a lamp post.

Anyhow, got a call last week off one of the parish members, saying that the lamp post is not working and they are instructing the county's engineering department to repair it and im to foot the bill.

Now, heres the thing, when we excavated for the path we came across a duct around 150mm deep, which obviously led to the lamp post, we didnt touch it, knock it or anything, just encased in concrete and backfilled.

I can remember from being a kid that the lamp post was dodgy, we used to climb it to try and stop it flashing by banging it lol.

My thoughts are, how eight months later can they say that i have damaged the cable when no one at all can be sure whether the light worked before i put the path in? No one can recall exactly when the light stopped working. Also the cable (according to legislation i have read) should be buried a minimum of 500mm deep in open ground and the lamp post that is directly before it and which the electric feed comes from doesnt work also? So even if i did break it, its not my fault as its not buried deep enough?

The engineer from the council said that you dont need to actually break a cable to damage it, that just a knock can be sufficient to gradually over time cause the cable to "burn out"

last year some locals pulled some trees out where the new path now is and some old playground equipment - thats defiantley getting mentioned.

Feels like im being made a scape goat for a new lamp post, any thoughts?

Posted: **Wed Dec 14, 2011 6:27 pm**

I don't see how an organisation could instruct works at your expense with no 'concrete' evidence.

I'd not worry about it.

Posted: **Wed Dec 14, 2011 6:28 pm**

You are laughing really. 8 months after works they cant then blame you, even more so if more work has since taken place. Bloody cheeky proposal if you ask me. Any issue should have been checked and reported at the time work was completed surely

Posted: **Wed Dec 14, 2011 7:01 pm**

they can bill you all they want
unless they excavate and fine a crisp packet wrapped around a break in the line why would it be your fault?
dont be nasty,but just ask why are they trying to blame you after 8 months?
surely day 1 is the time to check the light is working?
LLL

Posted: **Wed Dec 14, 2011 7:04 pm**

Id try changing the bulb your self just to make sure its not some thing as simple as that before things get out of hand

Posted: **Wed Dec 14, 2011 7:25 pm**

Would it not just require a simple cable repair rather than a totally new unit. I'm with everyone else even if you get the bill it's unlikely they could make you pay it. I had something fairly similar hapen a few years back and it turned out it was nothing to do with me but once I started getting invoices I became an awkward f#cker and started invoicing them back for admin fees to deal with reading all the crap they sent me at Â£200 an hour. That really threw them they had no answer to it and eventually I had billed them for the exact amount they'd billed me for and were getting really p#ssed I then sent a final demand saying I'll be passing their unpaid account onrto a debt collection agency and I never heard another thing.

Posted: **Wed Dec 14, 2011 7:35 pm**

Apparently, engineers aka bulb changers have been out and thats not the case, it is the cable, they say.

This is what im saying, for me to pay that bill they have lots of work to do to convince me, i want to see a relatively fresh broken cable right under the path i put in. Which im sure they will not find.

What if they say, the cable has been damaged but not marked under the path you put in and has caused the wire to break inside the armour, how can they prove that i have done it it and how can i prove i havent?

Posted: **Wed Dec 14, 2011 8:42 pm**

you know its not you fault and as such do as pablo has done in the past, send out an invoice tomorrow first class recorded (75p extra) and keep doing so increasing the cost to suit. 1yr defects list from client = kill the little guy for the big boys. :;):

Posted: **Thu Dec 15, 2011 5:58 pm**

whatever happend to innocent until proven guilty?
If the police adopted this councils attitude, then everyone of us would be locked up!
ridiculous dan. Ignore and charging, and take it to the very end!

Edited By dig dug dan on 1323971908

Posted: **Fri Dec 16, 2011 6:21 pm**

So...10.00am this morning - first thing, supposedly, half of the counties engineering department landed on site in convoy, they tested the cable between "my" lampost and the adjacent one, with a machine, the again with a slightly bigger one then again with a monster.

Guess what.......

The cables fine.

Sweet!

So with a big grin, started up the navara and did one :p

Posted: **Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:36 pm**

Sounds like the bulb changer changed the bulb, it didn't work so he diagnosed it as a cable.

Perhaps he should've stuck to what he does best rather than promote himself for the day.
If it were a business and not the village hall I'd stick in a call out charge.

Posted: **Sat Dec 17, 2011 8:28 am**

Idiots. How many blokes did it take to do this simple test?

Posted: **Sat Dec 17, 2011 8:52 am**

Glad that its resolved in your favour Dan. I would be tempted to send them an invoice for the stress that they have caused you.

And even though its been resolved, your reputation has been tarred by this when you've done nothing wrong. Thats one of the big problems i've got with these council's, they mess around with your liveleyhood like its nothing and you have no chance of any redress

Posted: **Sat Dec 17, 2011 11:01 am**

It took 3 guys in 2 wagons and a bloke in a car, to be fair it took them around 15 mins to declare i was off the hook.

The boss thought i did the path last week, i said no 8 months ago mate, he said well no1 can possible say when the lamp post went off anyway. lol

It was on last night, so it must of been the bulb, ha ha

The Brew Cabin

Lamp post